Flashbacks: Scotland

In the middle of November -from the 14th- Pasi and me made a 5-days trip to Scotland. It was a good chance to visit two of my friends, that this year are living in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Our flight was a Dublin-Edinburgh at 6:30 a.m. So we were traveling the whole night.



When we're just landed, Tonecas guided us to his house in which he lives with a lot of people. But it doesn't matter because it's a big building and his room is really good: two beds, own bathroom, own refrigerator...



A great luxury compared with our rooms in Elms Village and its shitty spring mattress. The difference is so big and we were so tired that we fall asleep instantly. Then we explore the city that is actually very beautiful - it is worthy to walk it for hours.











Pasi, me and Antonio in Edimbrá

The best walk we made was designed by Antonio. We were in Calton Hill, in the Parliament and we went to the top of a hill that are in front of the Parliament known as Arthur's Seat.





The Friday, we took a bus to Glasgow where Edu was waiting (or he should be) for us. Finally, we met and he was showing us some city places like the cathedral, the university and his accommodation. Ah! and his friend Ian, that is in one of the next photos.









They were lots of people wearing kilt because the same day was an important rugby match against the British.

On Saturday we three were in a guided bus trip through the Highlands. Lots of places, different landscapes, frequent stops to see a beautiful valley or a monument or a lake... In one of the pauses we tried some of the famous haggis.







We were in the Ness Lake and in fact Antonio and me cross it by ship. Finally, we found Nessy.


We had some relaxed time at Antonio's place the rest of the time, chatting and watching a movie and that was also good. If you think in the number of hours that that week we were in a bus, you will realize how tired of bus I was.

And this is the last photo, just before saying goodbye and return to the daily study basis that we (usually) have at Belfast.



PS: You can read different points of view about this travel in Pasi's, Antonio's and Edu's blog. And also a subsequent visit of Antonio to Edu.

Flashbacks: Newcastle

Next flashback. After the Halloween day, the next remarkable activity was our trip to Newcastle, a really small and surrounded by nature village located in the county Down, Northern Ireland. And no, you're probably wrong. The football team is from the other Newcastle in Britain.


Bigger map

Just by chance, that day almost all the people had different plans or they weren't interested and, finally, only Ilkka and me actually visited the place.

One of the first thing we saw was this impressive building. Non surprisely, it is a luxury hotel.


After that we looked for the tourist information office. During the walk we realised how small is Newcastle. In five minutes, we traversed most of it! By the way we realised that there are a lot of slot machine places. When I asked about it to the girl at the tourist office she gave us an inexpected explanation: Newcastle is like a beach resort in NI, but you can't swim most of the time even in the summer, and the people play slot machines.

There is a modern monument on the beach. Nothing special, but I took the most artistic photo in there. The title is "Ilkka and the end of the tunnel".


In my opinion, the best of Newcastle is the environment, not the beach. Ilkka and me agreed that Spain is much better for beach and sun tourism. We weren't equipped to make a really long walk in the mount, so we walked a small route in the North of the village.




Ilkka and me supporting the nature

A final detail about Newcastle: the graveyard. They are really beautiful celtic crosses as you can see.

Flashbacks: Halloween

I decided to post about that silent months. I stopped the updates just before Halloween, so the first flashback is about that day.

Halloween is an American and English tradition that is not important at all in Spain and most of the countries of my group of friends. Despite of that, the people made the preparations in advance and the results were quite good.

Paige and Ryan were to pints of Guinnes. A really good idea if you are in Ireland. Rikka was a good witch, she looks like really innocent, as well as Sara the little fairy.




One of my favourites customes was Walter's. His homemade ghostbuster suit was simply brilliant.


They were more interesting customes, but I don't have good photos of each one, but it was really funny to see all of them.

In fact, not all the people. Ilkka, Pasi and me were working at the university two hours before the Halloween party and we didn't have any costume or project of one. But we managed to do it!

Pasi borrowed some clothes from Sara and Caroline put some Tesco blood and other make up in Ilkka's face. In both cases, the result was frightening.



I decided to make something more original: a crash dummy. I drew the sign that the dummies have in the articulations and then I printed docens. After painting the yellow parts, and paste it over a cereal box and cut it, that symbols were ready to stick over some dark clothes. The result was ambiguous, half of the people said: "Wow, the Nuclear Man!".



On conclusion, it was a very funny day.